Millions of people have already voted. I voted on October 29. If you have not yet voted, go to your polling place and do your civic duty. End our national nightmare.
So, here is my plan for the rest of the day. Because this is not a normal day, I’m going to do something unusual. Instead of posting about corruption, fraud, privatization, disruption, testing, or other themes with which you are familiar, I’m going to post very short videos that I enjoyed and that I want to share with you.
If you have some funny videos, you are welcome to post them. Let’s try to laugh our way through a day that will shape the future of our nation and to a large extent, the world.
Don’t bite your nails. Laugh.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
A classic Ted Talk….I’m sure everyone has seen it, but it seems fitting for today.
I like this one. I had to hold my breath ON A VIDEO!!
Video: Amazing Balance Challenge
CCTV is funded in whole or in part by the Chinese government.
A couple of performers on a Chinese talent show demonstrate an incredible act of balance that leaves the judges and audience floored by their performance. There is so much potential for this balancing act to go horribly wrong that it’s easy to see why everyone was stunned they even attempted this.
Laughing is important, but if you’re too stressed to work anyway, make some calls to Florida to GOTV. https://www.mobilize.us/swingleft/event/361198
My Favorite Things (from The Sound of Music)
Charters and testing and schoolhouse disruption
Hedge fund infesting and Whitehouse corruption
Brown paper package$ tied up with strings
These are a few of my favorite things
Scam colored phonies and huge Apple contracts
Chetty’s with No-bels and Deasy’s with contacts
Wild geese that fly with the VAM on their wings
These are a few of my favorite things
Betsy’s with vouchers and billion$ from Billyans
Flimflams that stick in my craw, by the millions
Crazy White Houses like pigs on the wings
These are a few of my favorite things
When the dog bites
When the bee stings
When I’m feeling sad
I simply remember my favorite things
And then I don’t feel so bad
SDP: love it!
Perfect, SDP.
LMAO!!! Magnificent, SomeDAM!
Here’s a first (and final) cut
(On Google Drive)
https://drive.google.com/file/d/14P1JwepqdMbUA1zbz0PPlO5DyScAmgeX/view?usp=drivesdk
This is magnificent, SomeDAM, and I freaking LOVE, LOVE, LOVE the performance! You have a beautiful voice. Have you done musical theatre or performed with a chorus or band? Great.
You sound splendid! It was a pleasure to sing along with you. When you learn to read, you begin with ABC. When you learn to sing, you begin with do-re-me.
Do-re-me
Do-re-me
Do-re-me
$-Dough-$, my dear, what Gates holds dear
Re, a drop of golden sun
Rhee, a name I’ll not call out, myself
Fa, a long, long way to run
So, wealthy donors pulling threads
La, a note to follow so
Tee, a thing where Broadies put your head
And that will bring them back to dough, cha-ching!
By all means, add your voice and pass it along.
The Diane Ravitch Bloggers choir!
Hey, if everyone else can do it, why can’t we?
Diane can host it on her site and her IT person (Gary?) can update it with the new file each time.
You are right! Gary Rubinstein is my IT guy. Whenever I have to post a pdf or a video, I turn to him. I can post links, but that all.
We e should also do your Dough Rhee Me
And maybe the Hills are Alive, with the sound of Testing
And by all means, add your guitar Bob.
I would feel honored.
No , I never sang in z choir nor did any musicals, though I used to do parody songs when I was blogging as climate poet Horatio Algeranon in a former lifetime back in ancient Greece
The Schools are alive with the sound of testing
And also,
High on the bill$ lived a meddling Gates herd
Arn ee odl Bets ee odl M. Rhee who?
Wow–a poet & songster–you’re a talented guy, SDP!
Thanks for sharing all your talents.
(Applause: I have to write it ’cause I can’t get Emojis up on blog posts.)
That’s from The SomeDAM Songs album, by the way
I’m working on a sequel SomeDAMmer Songs
Stay tuned.
Wait! What? Where can I get my copy??????
SomeDAMRecords.con
A member of Con Artists, Inc
This from Spitting Image, the UK satirical series. It was popular in the 1980s-1990s and was cancelled in 1996. They revived it this year.
Not a funny video, but an interesting, short read:
https://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/2020/11/03/schools-need-to-be-bolder-about-reopening.html
Thanks for the relief. I hope if Biden wins you become Secretary of Education! Excelsior! You are a national treasure!
So, a few pieces, there, that I hope will be inspiring and calming on this solemn day when the entire world is awaiting the outcome with (a)bated breath.
Good idea. I was just reading an article in The Washington Post about a Jewish cemetery in Grand Rapids, Michigan (where else?) that was vandalized with spray-painted Trump graffiti last night. It didn’t exactly make my day.
Hope all comes out well today. Please also wish us luck today, Diane and all – https://davidglenn2020.com/
OK, what the heck. A poem.
I Am an Idiot | Bob Shepherd
Yes.
I’m an idiot,
for I will rise
from my work
to watch raindrops
patter on a sidewalk
as though I’d never
seen them before,
as though these were
the first rain
on the first day
in freaking Eden.
I’m like the child
who never tires
of watching
Jack spring from the box,
who is surprised,
each time,
who squeals with delight,
each time,
as though
this were revelation
and he or she
hadn’t seen this,
already,
thousands of times.
Being an idiot,
I sometimes think
I could make a religion of this,
of this staring stupidly
at the rain,
for certainly,
one could (and people have)
made religions of worse.
I think I could probably
gather about me
a whole troupe
of “spiritual wives”
and we could
watch the rain together,
which would be fun,
for sure,
for a time,
but being an idiot,
I lack the will
for that,
or, perhaps,
the low cunning.
This is why,
I suppose,
gurus are gurus,
and I, I,
am just another
idiot.
Love it!
And another. This one, written for a friend who entertained the notion that she had lived a previous life in ancient Greece, is in my attempt at Sapphic meter, the metrical form used by the incomparable Sappho of Lesbos (c. 630 – 570 BCE). A sibyl was an oracle to whom people went for answers to questions of great import. A bark is a ship.
Sappho Speaks across the Ages to Her Lost Love | Bob Shepherd
Where art thou my lithesome disciple, she who
Broke me hard upon the fierce wheel of my own
Longing, cracked me wide until nothing could save
Me from this flooding?
Gone, I know, reborn in some other time, some
Other place. Thus spake the Sybil unto me:
“Gone she is. Where no bark can carry you. There,
You are no more.” O!
Fine as figs and nectar of plums were your sweet
Kisses. None can these e’er replace, O thou, thou,
Thou of honied face, I am broken on you,
Broken and flooded. Holy the flood is,
Pupil and teacher,
Holy the flood.
My plan for election day
I plan to vote, election day
Some fifty times (the Demo way)
In Utah and in South Dakota
Washington and Arizona
In California and in Maine
In every state that you can name
I’m starting early, ending late
My plan to win is really great
Don’t you agree?
SomeDAM poet:
Great poem. Only now the tune will be stuck in my head possibly until:
The halls are alive with the smell of turkey.
Thanks, Diane! ❤
My son does mindfulness research at the University of Utah in Salt Lake. He has some videos to help our practice. Here is one he did especially for today and voting. 🙂
My husband will be watching his favorites, The Lone Ranger (I had found an autographed picture of Clayton Moore, which hangs in his office) & Perry Mason (my favorite, as well–of course, the original !) while I am on a Zoom class (Jewish Learning Institute’s “Secrets of the Bible”–&, no, doesn’t include it45).
Of course, when class is over, I will be hosting an election conference call.
Hopefully, the entire night will be pleasant.
Enjoy all those videos, & stay well–both mentally & physically.